I think there’s a country song called “The Cold Hard Facts of Life.”

---Laughter

I think when you compare Yellowknife to Deline or Ulukhaktok or any other community, it’s obvious there's the cost of transportation, the fact that there’s competition in Yellowknife so that keeps the prices down, and also in the small communities the businesses pay the fully burdened cost of energy. They have to pass that on to the consumer.

As a government, as I said, we spend about $200 million subsidizing the cost of living. We have done studies that show in communities like Sachs Harbour, even though you make $100,000, you have to be subsidized to a certain extent. I don’t think there’s too many ways around it.

In trying to find ways to reduce the high cost of living, we’ve determined that the best way to reduce the cost of living is to invest in infrastructure. That’s the most tangible way of doing that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.